ICE to launch London gold clearing before banks are ready

LONDON -- Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is set to launch clearing for London's benchmark gold price auction before participants are ready as it races to prevent rivals muscling in on the city's $5 trillion-a-year bullion market, market and banking sources said.

Clearing -- where an exchange acts as an intermediary to guarantee and settle trades -- is regarded as a necessary progression for the gold trade as tighter regulatory capital requirements increase the cost of trading off-exchange. ICE, the London Metal Exchange, and CME Group are competing to offer services through futures contracts and grab the biggest slice of the new business.

U.S.-based exchange operator ICE has already pushed back the launch of its service by several weeks to allow the banks and brokers who participate in the auction to adapt their IT systems, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Two of the sources said ICE now planned to introduce clearing from Apr. 3, the first Monday of the month.

However, at least four of the 14 banks and brokers who participate in the LBMA Gold Price auction -- which sets the benchmark for bullion traders around the world -- will still not be ready to use the new system, three separate sources said. ...

K92 Mining Inc. is pleased to report that mining production has shown a steady ramp up over the last three months with ore tonnes mined being over 50 percent above budget in January while contained gold ounces were almost 20 percent above budget.

The company mined more than 8,000 ore tonnes by February 24 and is on target to achieve 10,000 tonnes by month end, which is 40 percent above February budget. The increased ore production is in part due to significant lower-grade ore being identified outside the planned ore envelope, which was identified by our ongoing grade-control program, highlighting the importance and success of this program. ...